33 Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And your children shall wander in the wilderness. He here pronounces that their children shall be in some measure partakers of their punishment, inasmuch as they shall wander in the desert until the time prescribed: for by the word shepherds, He means sojourners, who have no certain or settled residence. To this effect is the similitude in the song of Hezekiah: "My lodging is departed as a shepherd's tent." [1] (Isaiah 38:12.) In short, He declares that they shall be wandering and unsettled, and lead a life, like shepherds conducting their flocks from place to place. He calls the wicked rebellions, whereby they had corrupted themselves, metaphorically "whoredoms;" for, from the time that God had espoused them to Himself, their true chastity would have been to embrace His grace in sincere faith, and at the same time to devote themselves to His service; but by rejecting tits pure worship, they had broken their sacred marriage-vow like gadding harlots. This example teaches us how God visits the iniquities of the fathers on their children, and yet chastises no one undeservedly; since the descendants here referred to, although atoning for the fault of others, were still by no means innocent themselves. But in the judgments of God there is always a deep abyss, into which if you fear to be plunged, adore that which it is not lawful to question. Nevertheless, there is no doubt but that thus also God provided for the welfare of those, towards whom He appeared to show some marks of severity. For He waited not only until they had grown up, but also, as was advantageous to themselves, until they had attained the strength of manhood, and until a new generation had sprung up. He assigns a second reason why He postponed the fulfillment of His promise for forty years, viz., that tie might repay the ill-spent days by as many years. Having, then, spoken of their children, He again returns to the actual criminals themselves, who were to be consumed in all that long period of time, as if by a lingering disease. The noun tnv't, tenuoth, which I have rendered vanity, [2] is derived from the verb nv', nu, which signifies to render ineffectual. Translators, however, extract from it various meanings. Some thus construe it: Ye shall know whether I am false, or whether my word shall be vain. Others, rendering it prohibition, depart more widely from the sense. But, in my judgment, it is an ironical concession, whereby God reproves their detestable pride, which had no other object than to accuse God of falsehood, and to charge Him calumniously with failing to fulfil His words. Unless, [3] perhaps, it should be preferred to take it passively; because the people had endeavored to annihilate, as it were, God himself. But still I rather adopt this sense, that they should perceive by certain and experimental proof, whether God's promises were frivolous or vain. Moreover, we must bear in mind the admonition of the Prophet, to which I have referred, (Psalm 95:11,) and which the Apostle adapts to our present use, (Hebrews 4:6,) viz., that a better rest is now offered to us, from which we are to fear lest our unbelief should withhold us. For it is not sufficient for us that God's hand should once have been extended to us, unless we allow ourselves to be directed by it, until our earthly wanderings are concluded, and it conducts us into our heavenly rest.
1 - A.V., "Mine age is departed, etc." A. Barnes's translation pretty nearly agrees with that of C., which he defends in the following note: "The word dvry, which is here used, means properly the revolving period, or circle of human life. The parallelism seems to demand, however, that it should be used in the sense of dwelling, or habitation, so as to correspond with the "shepherd's tent." Accordingly, Lowth and Noyes render it habitation. So also do Gesenius and Rosenmuller. The Arabic word has this signification; and the Hebrew verb dvr, also means to dwell, to remain, as in Chaldee." C.'s Latin is here hospitium; in his Commentary on Isaiah, habitatio.
2 - A.V., "My breach of promise. Margin, Or, altering of my purpose." Fr., "Mensonge."
3 - "Sinon qu'on aimast mieux prendre ce mot en temps passif, Vous cognoistrez men aneantissement: pource que le peuple s'estoit efforce d'abolir Dieu;" unless it be preferred to take this word in a passive sense, You shall know my annihilation; because the people had striven to annihilate God. -- Fr.
Your whoredoms - Their several rebellions had been so many acts of faithless departure from the Lord who had taken them unto Himself. And as the children of the unchaste have generally to bear in their earthly careers much of the disgrace and the misery which forms the natural penalty of their parents' transgression; so here the children of the Israelites, although suffered to hope for an eventual entry into Canaan, were yet to endure, through many long years' wandering, the appropriate punishment of their fathers' willfulness.
And your children shall (n) wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your (o) whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
(n) The word signifies to be shepherds, or to wander like shepherds to and fro.
(o) Your infidelity and disobedience against God.
And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years,.... Or "feed" (b), as shepherds, who go from place to place, and seek fresh pasture for their sheep; it being the custom of a shepherd, as Aben Ezra observes, not to stand or rest in a place; and so like sheep grazing in a wilderness, where they have short commons, and wander about in search, of better. These forty years are to be reckoned from their coming out of Egypt, from whence they had now been come about a year and a half:
and bear your whoredoms; the punishment of their idolatries, which are frequently signified by this phrase, and particularly of the idolatry of the calf, which God threatened to punish whenever he visited for sin, Exodus 32:34; and of other sins, as their murmurings, &c. for it was on account of them their children wandered so long in the wilderness, and were kept out of the possession of the land of Canaan:
until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness; everyone of them be consumed by death, save those before excepted, Numbers 14:30.
(b) "erunt pascentes", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius, Junius & Tremellius; "pascent", Tigurine version, Piscator.
Forty years - So long as to make up the time of your dwelling in the wilderness forty years; one whole year and part of another were past before this sin or judgment. Your whoredoms - The punishment of your whoredoms, of your apostacy from, and perfidiousness against your Lord, who was your husband, and had married you to himself.
*More commentary available at chapter level.